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Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Tañada continues support for Freedom of Information bill

The Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication welcomes Deputy Speaker Erin Tañada's continuing commitment to the Freedom of Information bill. In the lawmaker's statement, he said he is not going to give up on his support for his pet bill and advocacy, the controversial Freedom of Information bill for the 15th Congress of the House of Representatives."Aside from the 117 solon-signatories willing to see this bill towards its eventual passage, the grassroots clamor led by the 'Right to Know' coalition is picking up. Lawmakers are genuinely committedto see this through and there are others who would have signed the manifesto but just didn’t make it to printer. There is definitely still time after the budget bill is taken up," Tañada said. “Concerns about media abuse may be addressed as long as a committee hearing is conducted. We are the lawmakers here, not the press. Safeguard provisions are already drafted for everyone’sconsideration," he added"Let us not create demons in our own minds as we have full control of the final language of the law. Let’s allkeep our eye on the ball - focus on the fundamentals that this bill stands for – transparency, accountability and participatory governance,” Tañada said.